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Citrus Panel Research Funds Set

Lakeland Ledger – May 22, 2008

Despite holding the line on taxes while committing an unprecedented $20 million to citrus disease research, the Florida Department of Citrus may still have a tax fight on its hands. Squeezed by higher fuel, fertilizer and other production costs, representatives for grapefruit and fresh citrus growers have told Citrus Department officials they need a break from the current tax burden.

If I can’t increase my bottom line, we’re going to have less and less and less grapefruit. It’s going to be too expensive to grow,” Stan Carter, an Okeechobee grower and member of the Florida Citrus Commission, told his colleagues at Wednesday’s commission meeting.

Carter’s remarks came as the commission, the Citrus Department’s governing body, considered the proposed 2008-09 budget proposed by Executive Director Ken Keck.

At the nearly unanimous urging of citrus industry groups, that budget earmarks $20 million for scientific research to combat citrus greening, a fatal bacterial disease, and citrus canker.

Most of the research money, which represents a third of the proposed $60.4 million budget, comes at the expense of marketing programs, which traditionally account for 80 percent of the Citrus Department’s budget.

The department is a state agency charged with promoting Florida citrus products. It gets about 90 percent of its revenue from a tax on every box of citrus harvested in the state.

Keck proposed holding the 2008-09 tax rates at 24 cents per box for juice oranges, the state’s largest crop; 35 cents per box for grapefruit, the second largest crop; 18 cents on fresh oranges and 17 cents on fresh “specialty citrus,” mostly tangerines.

Richard Kinney, the chief executive of Florida Citrus Packers in Lakeland, which represents the fresh citrus industry, said his group has asked for a 15-cent tax on fresh oranges and specialty citrus.

The tax debate came after commissioners heard that grapefruit juice sales had begun to recover while international sales of fresh grapefruit remained strong.

“If we went below the recommended tax rates, that’s saying the momentum we’ve experienced in grapefruit is not worthy of preserving and extending,” Keck said after the meeting.

Funding the $20 million in disease research would take 9 cents per box for each variety, so cutting grapefruit and fresh citrus taxes any further would mean no money left for any marketing programs in 2008-09, he added.

Keck’s proposed budget earned praises from Lakeland-based Florida Citrus Mutual, the state’s largest growers’ representative, and Ron Hamel, chief executive of Gulf Citrus Growers Association in LaBelle.

“I think they did an excellent job in balancing the immediate needs regarding research and staying within the same tax structure.” Hamel said.

Citrus groups across the state will get to review the proposed budget before the commission’s next meeting June 18, when it is scheduled to approve the budget.

However, the Legislature earlier this year moved the commission’s deadline for setting citrus tax rates to Nov. 1

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